Lily and the Furry Little Problem
by vashtra
Summary: While spending her last summer at the Potters, Lily notices something weird with James, Sirius and Remus when they start ignoring her. She decides to find out exactly what they are keeping from her. Slight Jily at the end, wolfstar if you please.


The Potter household had never been more full the summer before the Marauders last year at Hogwarts. Of course James and Sirius were there, but Remus stayed the last half of the summer and, to everyone's surprise, Lily Evans stayed as well. With the increasing war tensions (and with Petunia's increasing hatred) Lily decided a summer at home would not be worth the danger she would be attracting to her family and she had no idea where else to go. She had started to get closer to the Marauders during the last school year and she knew Mrs. Potter would take her, no questions asked. So that's how she found herself spending her last free months reading with Remus and playing games with Sirius and trying to avoid James' constant affection. She had long moved past her hatred of him, but the constant declarations of love were, in a word, exhausting. She had actually started to get close with everyone and found that, with Remus and Sirius there, James was not only tolerable, he was kind of funny and sweet. She was a little taken aback at how quickly they had accepted and included her, if she was being honest. She hadn't always been their biggest fan. The days passed pleasantly until they reached the end of July. Suddenly, she stopped being invited to hang out or play games with the three boys and they all spent an awful lot of time locked in their room. She tried to ignore it the first day, but she couldn't help feeling sharp spikes of pain.

"_Maybe I imagined all the friendship_?" she found herself asking. "_Maybe they got sick of me.."_

After three days of nothing but small, apologetic smiles from James and Sirius as they walked from the kitchen to the room, she had had enough. Lily Evans decided she was going to find out why the trio had suddenly cut her out. She walked upstairs and, without knocking, opened the door and stepped inside. The sight inside almost melted her anger. Despite the three beds around the edge of the room, all three boys were crammed on one. Remus was in the middle and had his hands curled around James' arm while his face was buried in Sirius' stomach. James and Sirius were so wrapped up in their quiet discussion that they hadn't noticed the opening of the door.

"Do you think stress is making it worse?" Sirius whispered worriedly as he ran his hands through Remus' hair.

"Maybe, but he's been stressed before and it was never this bad.." James trailed off as he noticed Lily's presence.

"Is he okay?" she asked, worry now overtaking her anger.

"What are you doing here?" James asked in response, sounding slightly defeated.

"I, well, I wanted to know why you guys started to avoid me, if it was something I did…" she trailed off as both James and Sirius let out a quiet laugh.

"It's not you," James started to say when the sleeping figure sandwiched between them started to move. Everyone stared in worried silence as he sat up and rubbed his eyes.

"Why all the long faces?" he said, his voice heavy with sleep.

"Lily here thinks we abandoned her because she's not cool enough to hang with us. Well, me." Sirius said as he moved his hand down to grab Remus'.

Remus looked up with panic as he realized they had a visitor.

"Lily! I'm sorry," he started to say as the two boys on his sides reached out to hit him.

"Don't you dare apologize," Sirius said intensely as his thumb drew circles on Remus' hand.

"It's not your fault!" James said at the same time as he went to brush some hair out of Remus' eyes.

"Seriously, what is going on?" Lily asked with an increasing sense of worry.

The three boys exchanged looks. They knew the 'he's just sick' excuse wasn't going to work on her anymore.

James looked at Remus, as if asking permission, and then gently untangled himself and stood up. The two others followed his lead, Sirius holding Remus up as James stepped closer to Lily, almost as if he was putting himself between the two parties.

"Lily, I know we can't lie to you anymore." James started. Behind him, Lily could see Sirius take a protective stance as he stepped a little in front of Remus; shielding him or holding him back, Lily didn't know. She could see Remus fall into the figure in front of him and bury his face in his neck as if he didn't want to watch what was about to unfold.

"When I tell you, I need your promise that you will not tell a soul."

"Of course," Lily started, but James interrupted gently.

"No, we need you to understand how important this secret is. If it gets out," he shuddered, "all of us could be killed."

Sirius tensed behind James at the thought.

"_What could possibly be this bad?" _Lily wondered to herself as her mind went 100 miles a minute.

James took a deep breath and Remus tightened his grip on Sirius' arms.

"Remus is, um, well, he's a werewolf." James said, almost whispering the last word. They all seemed to tense, waiting for her reaction. Lily stared at James and then at Sirius and Remus behind him and couldn't hold back the laugh that escaped her lips.

Remus lifted his face at that, his expression was unreadable. Sirius, on the other hand, looked like he might kill her if she didn't explain her reaction.

"I just, I thought he was dying! I was so worried! That was not enough cause for all _this," _she said, gesturing around the room.

"You're not, not scared? Disgusted?" Remus asked quietly as Sirius snarled at the last word.

"Scared? Of you?" she said with a snort of derision. "Remus, I'm sorry, but you're just not that scary. I am much more terrified of James than I am of you."

"Terrified in a good way?" James asked.

"Uh, more terrified of being in small spaces with just you and not being able to escape," she said, mostly joking.

She thought everyone would relax once they realized she wasn't going to freak, but James and Sirius shared a worried look that told her there was more.

"What else?" she asked quietly.

"Well, when we found out third year, we decided we had to do what we can do to help." James said nervously. "Remus strictly forbid us from being there when he transformed, as werewolves are dangerous to humans. So, like any thirteen year old, we decided if we couldn't be there as humans, we'd have to, well, not be human." James finished.

"How can you be there but not as a human?" she asked. James and Sirius shared another look before deciding she needed a presentation. Sirius walked Remus back to the bed where Lily was surprised to see tears on his face. He seemed reluctant to let go of Sirius, but after Sirius wiped his tears and whispered something in his ear, Remus dropped his hands into his lap. He and James walked into the center of the room. Lily blinked and, instead of the two teenagers who were just standing there, there was a stag and a black dog.

The dog walked back over to the bed and crawled into Remus' lap.

"They come to every transformation. I used to get so hurt," Remus said through his tears as he pet the dog on his lap, who growled at the memories of Remus after transforming alone. "No one could ever understand what they did for me. I was told, growing up, that if anyone found out they would either run away or kill me or both. I never expected.." he trailed off as the stag walked closer and rubbed its nose against Remus' shoulder.

"You guys did this by yourself?" Lily asked, her voice dripping in disbelief and amazement. "It took McGonagall years! I just," she stopped as she slid to the floor. The stag walked behind a bed as Lily dropped her head into her eyes. When she looked back up, James was walking toward her and he joined her on the floor. Sirius was back in his human form as well, curled up on Remus' lap.

"You're not running away, that's a good sign." James said with a smile as he tapped his foot against hers.

"I mean, it's really no biggie. My boyfriend and his boyfriends turn into animals every once in a while, I should have honestly expected that." Lily stopped as she realized what she just said. She looked up quickly to see her look of surprise echoed on the three faces looking at her.

"What did you just say?" James said without looking away from her face.

"Don't pretend anymore honey bunny, she said she knows about us and our three way!" Sirius said as Remus lost control and started laughing.

James shot him a dirty look as he stood up and offered his hand to Lily, which she gratefully took. He started to lead her out the door as Remus called, "Don't be like that baby! We have a very healthy relationship, nothing to be ashamed of!" James shut the door on his two laughing friends as he tried to plan what he was going to say to Lily.


End file.
